The Warriors have the potential to go far this season, but they're not going to get there on cuteness alone.

Curry throws a blind, floor-length bounce pass to Iguodala, who butt-bumps the ball to Bogut, who whips a no-look pass to Lee, who kicks out to Thompson, who buries a three and falls back into the arms of Kent Bazemore! Are you kidding me?

Teams hate to get posterized and circused, and the Warriors will do that to you. Not because they want to show teams up, but because that's how they roll. Style-wise, Stephen Curry sets the tone.

Wednesday, I asked Warriors coach Mark Jackson about protecting Curry. I likened Curry to Wayne Gretzky, which is comparing apples to frozen apples. Some opponents tried to beat up the frail-looking Gretzky, so Gretzky's teams always had an enforcer who made that thuggish style of play less effective.

The question to Jackson: If opponents decide that the best way to stop Curry is to beat him up, is there ever a time when you say, "OK, we have to have an antidote for that?"

Jackson: "Yes."

Cue Andrew Bogut. He's a nifty passer and smart player, but he's also the menacing presence the Warriors haven't had since before recorded history.

Bogut waved off the idea that the Warriors might face a cuteness backlash, an increase in physicality by opponents wanting to knock the Warriors off their trapeze. Bogut noted that the Warriors aren't trying to show teams up, they just happen to play fast and exciting ball.

A skill player first

It didn't sound like a threat. Bogut doesn't revel in the role of enforcer/bodyguard. He considers himself a basketball player, not a hit man. When I asked him if every NBA team needs an enforcer, Bogut said no.

"Look," Bogut said, "you need a guy that's going to be physical and grab rebounds and set screens. I don't know if you need a tough guy that's trying to fight everybody. I think you need some toughness, but toughness isn't necessarily just physicality, it's mental toughness, too, it's getting knocked down and getting back up. You're going to get hit in the NBA.

"Some guys have that tough-guy mentality. I don't think it can really win you that many games, to be honest, but there are guys like Reggie Evans in this league that have carved out a career just being physical and setting screens. Not highly skilled guys.

"You can argue for and against (the need for an enforcer), but on Miami, who would you classify as a bruiser in the paint? They're a very talented team, but they play free-flowing and they play a great style of basketball. They don't really have a guy that goes and beats the crap out of people. Dallas didn't really have one when they went to the championship, unless you classify (Tyson) Chandler as a tough guy. There's a for-and-against argument, in my opinion."

Bogut stressed that there is a difference between thuggish behavior and toughness.

"To play in the paint in the NBA you've got to take hits and you've got to give hits," he said. "That's just the reality of it. You're going to be sore after games, and you're going to get bruises and injuries. That's what happens down there.

"I mean, guys that play many years and are big and never get injuries, maybe they're not giving up their body as much as they should. I think most guys that play in the paint have had some pretty nasty injuries along the way, just because of the reality of it. Especially when you've got guys like Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala, they're (shooting guards and small forwards), but they're 240, 250 and they're coming full steam ahead at you. It hurts sometimes."

How NBA has changed

This is Bogut's ninth NBA season. I asked him to compare the level of physical play now with when he was a rookie in 2005.

"I think (rough play has been) phased out a little bit," Bogut said. "When I came in the league you had Shaq (O'Neal), you had Alonzo (Mourning), you had Dikembe (Mutombo), you had big guys that would throw elbows. It's kind of gone a little bit more to up-and-down style, the three-point style. It's probably better to watch that way; I think the NBA kind of went that way because no one wants to see a game like the Eastern Conference four or five years ago, where scores were 85 to 80. People want to see points, they want to see three-pointers and dunks, so the game is officiated a little different now.

"The grind-it-out style, there's not many teams doing that these days, and it is much harder to do, because back in the day you could knock people around in the paint, body-check 'em. A hard foul was just two free throws. Now you've got unsportsmanlike fouls, and flagrants, so it's changed a fair bit.

"There was a point where the NBA was like football, in the '80s and early '90s, and I guess they didn't want that, because guys were getting hurt, and there were a lot of fights that were spilling into the front row, and that's the last thing you want is for a fan to get hurt, so the fine is very high.

"The tough-guy mentality's a little different these days. ... There's rarely any fights in the NBA, just because it's a very expensive fine. A missed punch is $25,000."

Yet, hardly a Warriors game goes by without Bogut and a large foe trading glares, words, elbows and the odd shove (hello, DeAndre Jordan of the Clippers).

Teams haven't been pinballing Curry, but that kind of behavior tends to show up more in the playoffs.

However the game is played, Bogut has been, and will be, quite useful to the Warriors.

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